Hyderabad, Oct 19 (IANS): Personnel of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) on Saturday began search for six persons who were feared drowned when the car in which they were travelling fell into the Left Canal of Nagarjuna Sagar Project in Telangana's Suryapet district, police said.

The incident occurred on Friday night in Chakirala village of Nadigudem block when the person driving the car apparently lost control and the vehicle fell off the bridge into the canal.

The six were identified as Abdul Aziz, 45, Rajesh, 29, Santhosh Kumar, 23, Pavan Kumar, 23, Naresh, 55, and Johnson, 33.

Police said the chance of any of them surviving was bleak.

All of them were employees of a private hospital in Hyderabad and were returning to the city after attending the marriage of their colleague in Suryapet district.

A group of five employees coming in another car were alerted by local residents about the accident.

Due to darkness and heavy flow of water authorities could not take up rescue work. A team of NDRF launched the search operation Saturday morning with a boat and other equipment.

The car was spotted at about half a kilometre from the bridge. However, the search continued for its occupants. District Collector Ameya Kumar was supervising search operations.